5. Invoices

Module: Invoices. Included in every plan.

Writing an invoice

Invoices → + New invoice.

1. Customer — pick one or type the details. A picked customer brings a structured address and VAT id, which matters for the e-invoice.
2. Date and due date. The due date is not decoration: the reminder run and the open-items list both work from it, and the e-invoice requires it as soon as an amount is outstanding.
3. Tax category — the revenue account from your chart. It settles the VAT rate and the VAT category.
4. Line items — from the catalog or free. Quantity, unit, unit price and a VAT rate per line.
5. Optional: notes, signature, the recipient's Leitweg-ID (field Buyer reference), invoice type.
6. Save. The invoice receives its sequential number and is thereby issued.

Important

The VAT rate belongs to the line, not to the invoice. That way one invoice can mix 19 % and 7 %, and both the e-invoice and the bookkeeping represent it correctly. The default rate from the company profile applies only where a line carries none of its own.

The number

The number comes from the number range and is assigned atomically. The field in the form shows the next free number as a suggestion. If you deliberately type a different one it is kept, but it must be unique within your company — otherwise the platform refuses to save.

Viewing and downloading the PDF

On the invoice page:

• Preview opens the PDF in a new tab.
• Download PDF saves it locally.

Both are produced from your template, with your layout, your logo and your colours. There is no second, different invoice layout hiding in the background: preview, download, e-mail attachment and e-invoice all come from the same source.

The archive

Every issued file is archived: the rendered PDF, the XRechnung XML and the ZUGFeRD PDF. The archive is append-only — issuing again adds a new version and never overwrites the old one.

The reason is § 147 AO and the GoBD: your archive must return the document as it was issued, not as it would render today. Had you changed your template in the meantime, a re-render would be a different document.

The retention period is eight years (§ 14b UStG, § 147 AO), counted from the end of the year in which the invoice was issued. Since 2025 it is eight years rather than ten. For an e-invoice it is the structured data that counts — the XML file, not the printout.

You find the archive as a card on the invoice page; every row downloads separately.

QR codes

The invoice page carries two QR codes, switchable:

• Pay (Girocode) — the EPC code to EPC069-12. The customer scans it with their banking app and has a prepared SEPA transfer in front of them: payee, IBAN, amount and reference. Requires an IBAN in the company profile and an amount above zero.
• Info — a readable summary: invoice number, company, recipient, date, net, VAT and total.

Both state the same total.

The history

The History card on the invoice page is the invoice's own tracking. It brings together what the invoice itself cannot know:

Entry	When it appears
Created	on creation
Finalised	when the number is assigned
E-mail sent	on dispatch, with the recipient address
Viewed	when the payment page is opened for the first time
Reminder / Overdue notice	from the reminder run
Letter submitted / sent / delivered / undeliverable	from the letter service
PEPPOL submitted / sent / delivered / accepted / rejected	from the access network
Paid	when an incoming payment is matched and confirmed, stamped with the bank's value date

Green means done, amber is a reminder, red is a problem.

Tip

Viewed is useful in a conversation with a customer: you can see that the payment page was opened. It is not a read receipt for the e-mail — it is evidence that the link was used.

Editing and deleting

Invoices remain editable after issue — for a typo in the notes or a buyer reference added later. Amounts and line items should not change after dispatch; correct them with a cancellation or corrected invoice instead, so the document and the bookkeeping agree.

Deleting is possible only as a draft. A finalized invoice carries a sequential number and falls under the retention duty (§ 147 AO) — it is cancelled in the bookkeeping, never deleted. Deleting a draft also removes its archived trial prints.

Templates and the Designer

• Templates (every plan) — the list of your layouts. The standard German template is there from the start.
• Designer (from Business) — the visual editor: you place text fields, tables, logo, QR code and signature field on a page in millimetres and bind placeholders such as {{invoice.number}} or {{seller.iban}}.
• Invoice → Template (from Business) — upload an existing PDF invoice and the platform rebuilds it as a Designer template: line items, fonts, colours and logo are read from the document itself.

Note

Templates follow the DIN 5008 layout. If you intend to send by letter, do not move the address window — the letter service checks where the address block sits and rejects items whose address falls outside it.